Ditch Club Lloyds & Bank of Scotland Vantage – they're cutting interest in October

Currently, each account pays 1.5% AER interest on balances of up to £5,000 – with both having already cut rates from 2% last summer.

But from 1 October 2019, the banks will be changing the accounts' interest rates – making them lower than current top easy-access savings:

• The accounts will pay 1% AER interest on balances between £1 and £3,999.99, a 0.5 percentage-point drop.

• The accounts will pay 2% AER interest on the part of any balance between £4,000 and £5,000, a 0.5 percentage-point increase.

This means that on a balance of £5,000, the effective overall interest rate will be around 1.2%, compared to 1.5% at the moment.

And the maximum amount of interest you can earn annually on the accounts will drop by £15.10, from £74.50/year to £59.40/year.

The new interest rate will be easily beaten by the current top-paying easy-access savings, which has a 1.5% rate – though this is variable.

And if you're looking for a new current account, you can ditch and switch to bag cash bonuses which can outweigh any interest you'll earn on your bank balance.

For the current best-buy bank accounts, including 5% interest on £2,500 fixed for a year, see our Best Bank Accounts guide.

Which easy-access savings pay the most interest?

The Club Lloyds and Vantage accounts are currently equal to the current top-paying easy-access savings account, which is Marcus at 1.5% AER.

But after the rate drop, you'd only earn roughly 1.2% on £5,000 with Club Lloyds and Vantage, meaning the Marcus account would win on interest (though remember that this is a variable rate).

You can also switch your current account to earn a switching bonus, which will outweigh any interest you can earn in savings – at the moment, you could get up to £175 in cash. Our Best Bank Accounts guide has full details on the top switching offers.

If you want to really max the interest you earn, other top-paying current accounts pay higher interest rates than Lloyds and Bank of Scotland or easy-access savings. This includes 5% on balances of up to £2,500 with Nationwide's FlexDirect account (dropping to 1% after the first year) and 3% on balances of up to £1,500 with TSB's Classic Plus.

But as these accounts only pay interest on balances up to a certain amount, for larger savings you'll be better off moving the rest into a top easy-access account.

What does Lloyds say?

A spokesperson for Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Lloyds and Bank of Scotland, said that the Club Lloyds and Bank of Scotland Vantage accounts "continue to recognise customer loyalty through the associated benefits available exclusively to customers".